Peter Melander

Peter Melander (8 February 1589-17 May 1648) was a general of the Holy Roman Empire during the Thirty Years War, formerly fighting against the Habsburgs as a general of the Republic of Venice and later as a commander of Swiss Confederation troops. He was killed in the Battle of Zusmarshausen in the closing weeks of the war in 1648, shot twice while throwing himself into the fray.

Biography
Peter Melander was born in Niederhadamar in Hessen, and was a Protestant. He initially fought in the service of the Republic of Venice in the Uskok War (1615-18) against the Holy Roman Empire and Spanish Empire, and led Swiss troops in the War of the Mantuan Succession from 1628 to 1631. During the early stages of the Thirty Years War, he fought for the Protestants, but in 1640 switched sides after the new queen Amalie Elizabeth of Hanau-Munzenberg held onto anti-Habsburg policies. Emperor Ferdinand III of Austria courted him, and he became a general of the Holy Roman Empire and the Catholic League.

When Carl Gustav Wrangel invaded Westphalia in 1645, Melander had his first major role as an Imperial general, and commanded the army in Bohemia in 1647. In December he captured the town of Marburg but the Hessians held out in the castle, and Melander was nearly killed by a cannonball. In January of 1648, his troops retreated towards the Danube River, but Wrangel and Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne (Viscount Turenne) and a Franco-Swedish army ambushed him in the Battle of Zusmarshausen. Melander was shot twice while leading his men into the fray and was killed, and the Imperial army collapsed.